The official blog of center fielder Marlon Byrd

7/21 Baseball is going to miss Lou

Larry Bowa was my first manager. Frank Robinson was my second. With Bowa, you’re talking about one of the greatest shortstops of all time, even though people forget that. He had 2,800 hits and Gold Glove defense and played on championship teams. He was a fiery, fiery guy, sort of like Lou. Frank Robinson, I don’t have to say anything about him. A Hall of Famer and one of the greatest of all time — 586 home runs, a little short of 3,000 hits. I’m sure he could come back now and get them.

Then I played for Ron Washington. He’s probably the only one who’s different. I think if you mold all those guys together, you have Lou. He’s a clubhouse guy, a players’ manager as well as knows his X’s and O’s on the field. Baseball is going to miss him. He’s always going to be known for his fieriness but at the same time he’ll be known for taking teams to the playoffs and having very good teams.

I’m quite sure the game and fans will miss Lou, as well as Lou will miss the game. However, would Lou be retiring had the club lived up to expectations? The Cubs have had great managers, coaches, and players over the decades. Yet, they can never get over the hump. Why is that? Is there some mental barrier that they can’t break through. Other teams have come into the league, with much smaller pay rolls and have won it all.
I am a lifetime Cub fan with a terminal illness. My biggest fear is to die before they grasp that brass ring. Maybe they just reach a little deeper into their hearts for the strength.
Thanks Lou for giving it your best and good luck.

I’m sure you’re nearly as disappointed as I am, but my brother-in-law Andy and my sister-in-law Tara forgot to bring the makings of a sign to tell you who they were yesterday! You’re not gonna believe this either…they ended up eating at Gino’s! Man, talk about missed opportunities.

Here’s a little story about how my life is going right now, Marlon. My wife Taela set the DVR to record the game yesterday mostly because we knew that my brother-in-law Andy and sister-in-law Tara would be there. I spent all day not listening to my usual sports radio because I didn’t want to hear the score. Talk about a pain in the nethers! So my sister-in-law Tasia watches the game with us and, as you know, that game was flying by because nobody was scoring, right? Well then it goes to extras and Geo comes up and apparently my brother-in-law Andy had posted something on Facebook (more on that later) about Geo. Well Geo pops up to end the scoring threat and my sister-in-law Tasia (who had already spilled the beans about my wife Taela being pregnant earlier this week) says “well, I know that Soto gets a hit because he’s on my fantasy team and I need to go to brother-in-law Andy/sister Tara’s house to study and take care of their dog so you need to fast forward.” I’m all “the hell you say?” One thing I hate is when people tell me what’s coming, and as far as I can tell this is a pretty selfish move right here. There’s nothing I can do about it so I just have to fast forward.

Sure enough, we get to Geo and you guys are down by 3 and then Geo pops this ball out into left. The bleachers are sparsely populated at this point and the ball lands. Out of the left side of the screen there’s MY BROTHER-IN-LAW ANDY diving into the pile! It looked like he had a pretty good shot at nabbing that ball too, but he didn’t get it. I guess he needs to commit a little harder to that P90X so he can muscle his way through that pile of Northside beef next time. I mean, he’s from Oakland-ish so you’d think he could hold his own, but he’s also a pastor so he wasn’t flying into the fracas with fists of fury (imagine Sylvester the Cat saying that! Sufferin’ succotash!).

Well Marlon, I wish you could have met the family, but sometimes thes things don’t work out.

Oh, about your post about Lou…I’m not really sure what it is you’re trying to say. Are you saying Lou’s a good manager and you’re going to miss him? Are you saying he’s been good for the game and baseball will miss him? I mean, my take on Lou, whose autographed ball I now own thanks to The Riot’s deal, is that he only has signed one ball in his life and he’s going to be a Hall of Famer and that one ball he signed should be worth hundreds, nay, thousands of dollars! Also, I think he’s tired of losing.

Do you have a Twitter account? You could be TweetyByrd on there (more Sylvester the Cat reference…awesome).

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